


i'll meet you at the gate

by RoseisaRoseisaRose



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Azure Moon Route, F/M, Homecoming, Post-Game, extremely married Felix Fraldarius, remarkably tasteless descriptions of kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:47:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26416672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseisaRoseisaRose/pseuds/RoseisaRoseisaRose
Summary: Dimitri's retinue stops in Fraldarius on their journey to yet another diplomatic roundtable, and Felix's childhood friends abruptly learn how Felix is adjusting to peacetime.Aka another contribution to the ongoing "Felix Fraldarius Loves His Wife" agenda.
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic/Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Comments: 43
Kudos: 131





	i'll meet you at the gate

Felix had been crabby the entire day. They left too late. They rode too slow. They talked too much while they rode. They stopped too long for lunch. Sylvain ate too much for lunch. Things that didn’t even make sense, as far as Sylvain was concerned.

Because, Sylvain reflected, grabbing another handful of nuts and slowly eating them, just to be annoying, Felix had been crabby all that week, too. The weather would be bad. They were traveling with too many people and it would slow them down. Their route would be difficult on the horses. He should ride ahead because they wouldn’t need him for the last few days of negotiations, anyway. Being a Duke was largely useless and stupid. Everything could be better if you could solve it with a duel. Why did Sylvain keep _talking_ to him? Why did everyone in the world want to talk all of the time when they could be doing useful things, instead?

It was funny, because Sylvain had almost convinced himself that Felix had started to soften around the edges following the end of the war. It hadn’t been an easy month for any of them, with three weeks on the front lines of border skirmishes in Sreng and another two weeks in Fhirdiad trying to diplomatically end border skirmishes with Sreng. But if Felix’s sword had stayed sharp on the battlefield, his tongue had stayed guarded at the negotiation table, and he’d almost been pleasant in after-dinner conversation. That had shifted drastically in the last week. When Dimitri announced a small party needed to travel to Almyra for another round of diplomatic talks, Felix was quick to offer Fraldarius as a resting point on their travels – and then immediately turned to a worse version of the worst parts of his teenage self.

“Is everything . . . okay with Felix?” Dimitri asked Sylvain in a low voice after Felix called over his shoulder that Sylvain needed to stop whistling so loudly. He’d taken to riding next to Dedue, who didn’t whistle, or indeed say much of anything at all, which seemed to be what Felix wanted.

“He seems more on edge, right?” Sylvain said with a frown as Felix swatted at a fly so violently he nearly fell off his horse. “Maybe going back to Fraldarius is stressing him out; he doesn’t really, you know, _like_ being Duke.”

“It’s true he thrives on the battlefield; I’m sure a return to peacetime has to be frustrating,” Dimitri murmured with a frown. “Still, I hope he’s able to behave like a gentleman when we reach Fraldarius. I’m sure Annette’s missed him, they were scarcely married four months before he had to leave.”

“That’s scarcely enough time for him to get up enough nerve to hold hands with her,” Sylvain joked. Felix was a disaster in all social situations, and Annette compounded things. Sylvain had trouble imagining their married life. Felix had spent their wedding looking at her as if she was made of glass and might shatter if he held her too closely during their first dance, and at the handful of diplomatic dinners they had attended together, Felix simply followed her around like a shadow and glowered at everyone they talked to while she kept the conversation afloat. Sylvain added with a small chuckle, “Maybe he’ll cheer up after an evening of, I don’t know, Annette telling him about magic theory while he glares into the fireplace.”

“Will you two stop whispering like schoolchildren?” Felix yelled over his shoulder, turning his horse slightly to face them. “Do you have notes you’d like to share with the class? Have you decided whether Claude really _likes_ the Boar?”

“We were actually just discussing how excited Annie will be to see you,” Sylvain sang out, delighting in how the color drained from Felix’s face at Annette’s name at the same time it rushed to Dimitri’s face at Claude’s. “You must be really excited for that homecoming kiss, eh buddy?”

“Sh–shut up!” Felix snapped, and Sylvain couldn’t help it, he grinned wider. Felix had been _remarkably_ obnoxious all morning, after all.

“You _have_ kissed her since you married her, right? Girls like that sort of thing, you know. I’d be happy to give you some tips on it if you’re looking to –”

“I _said_ , shut up, Sylvain,” Felix growled, his hand reaching for his sword momentarily. Sylvain put his hands up, more amused than anything else – he could ride a horse with both hands up but he highly doubted Felix would be able to. And sure enough, Felix quickly thought better of trying to swing a sword on horseback. Muttering something about ridiculous wastes of time, he urged his horse ahead of the group. Dedue followed after him silently, his face unreadable.

“Looks like I struck a nerve,” Sylvian murmured to Dimitri, who had barely recovered from the Claude quip. “Poor Annette; I hope she finds sparring erotically thrilling. That does rather seem to be the life she’s signed up for.”

***

Felix never was quite able to outride them – even in his impatience, he was smart enough to know that his horse couldn’t gallop halfway across Faerghus, and the pace they had set was perfectly reasonable. Still, he managed to grumble the entire rest of the journey, and as the sun was beginning to dip below the treeline lining the Fraldarius horizon, even Dedue looked vaguely annoyed with Felix’s insistence that they were the worst traveling party in the history of travel. As the front gates of the Fraldarius castle came into view, he seemed to grow even more agitated, although it was thankfully concentrated in his constant fiddling with the horse reigns rather than him yelling at Sylvain for breathing too loud, or something.

“Feeeeelix! Felix!”

Sylvain looked towards the sound, but it took him several seconds before he was finally able to locate the voice. Annette stood at the edge of the gate, bundled up in a fur-lined cloak and matching hat, her long skirts waving in the brisk evening breeze. She was waving far more wildly, as if there was a chance Felix might not see her – although, given how short she was, Sylvain mused, perhaps that was a valid concern.

“Fucking _Seiros_ ,” Felix mumbled to himself. He tossed the reigns of his horse to Dedue, who caught them with faint surprise. He jumped off his horse and was running toward Annette at top speed before Sylvain could point out that this was actually probably a slower solution. Annette started running towards him, surprisingly agile in her winter layers, and they met somewhere in the middle, effectively blocking the road as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a kiss.

“Oh – oh my,” said Dimitri mildly, pulling up next to Dedue.

“That’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Sylvain added, moving his horse next to Felix’s abandoned steed.

“Mm,” Dedue agreed, frowning slightly.

They stared at the unfolding scene in horrified silence. Annette had grabbed Felix by the coat collar and yanked him down to her level, wrapping both arms around his neck and locking her arms at the elbows to keep him there. Felix had at some point thrown her hat to the side and had all of his fingers buried in her hair, which was frizzing wildly in every direction.

“They look like . . .two wyverns courting during mating season,” Dimitri finally said, bewildered.

“Nah, that’s not it,” Sylvain said. “They look like two wyverns fighting over a deer carcass they found on the side of the road.”

“I think it’s more a mother wyvern feeding her offspring pieces of the deer carcass, if the offspring is very clumsy,” Dedue said sagely, closing his eyes and nodding.

“That’s it, that’s the one,” Sylvain said. “Damn, I didn’t know you were a poet, Dedue.”

Annette at this point had wrapped both her legs around Felix’s waist and he had lifted her up off the ground. Felix lifted her up higher and bit at her neck, and Sylvain winced, more in embarrassment for how eager and desperate his friend was than anything else. Felix never had been one for half-measures. Annette grabbed at his face with equal desperation and pulled his mouth to hers, pressing an open mouthed kiss against him that Sylvain had to look away from.

“Mercedes mentioned to me that Annette called Lord Fraldarius very passionate, once, in her letters,” Dedue said calmly as Annette began tearing at the buckles on the front of Felix’s jacket. “Perhaps more than once, now that I think about it.”

“Dedue, you _knew_ about this and you’ve been holding out on us?” Sylvain said, staring at his friend in shock, glad for a chance to look away from the absolute calamity happening in front of him.

Dedue shrugged. “It didn’t seem like any of my business.”

Annette made some sound between a squeal and a moan as Felix adjusted his mouth against hers, his tongue flicking over hers in a way she was evidently enjoying, somehow.

“I’m . . . I’m very happy for them,” Dimitri said weakly, and in his defense, he sounded sincere.

But enough was enough.

“Oy! Hey Felix!” Sylvain finally yelled just as Annette finally fumbled with the last clasp on his jacket and started running her fingers up his chest and across his shoulders, pushing it back. “Is this the time and the place?”

“Uh?” asked Felix, dazed, and he swung his head around to see his traveling companions. Annette clung to his shoulders and pushed herself up, peering over at them.

“Hi Sylvain! Hi Dedue! Hi Your Majesty!” she sang out, giving a friendly wave. “Did you have a nice trip? I hope the roads weren’t too – eep!”

She gave the small shriek as Felix hoisted her further over his shoulder and spun around, facing the group. Sylvain could see her hands clutching around his neck for balance as he wrapped his arms around her legs.

“Welcome to Fraldarius, gentleman. You know where to find the stables and your rooms; I’ll see you all at dinner,” he said, already taking several steps backwards towards the gate. Annette said something muffled in his ear and Sylvain could swear he _smiled_ at it.

“Maybe breakfast,” he added, and whirled back around, Annette hair swinging in every direction as he did so, before hauling her off and disappearing behind the gate that she had waited so patiently by that afternoon. The last thing Sylvain heard from them was Annette’s wild laughter pitching into another shriek before the gate swung closed behind them, leaving the three men and four horses in stunned, uncomfortable silence.

After a long moment, Dedue spoke up, his voice as calm and unbothered as ever.

“If you can help me find the stables,” he said, “I’d like to make sure the horses are taken care of before nightfall.”

“Don’t get any ideas about our arrival in Alymra,” Sylvain said to Dimitri sternly as they followed after Dedue, who dismounted to lead both horses after him. “You’ll cause an international scandal.”

Dimitri didn’t push him off his horse, but Sylvain could tell he wanted to.

**Author's Note:**

> Do not ask me to defend myself; I have no defense to make.
> 
> [ You can follow me on twitter if for some godforsaken reason you still want to.](https://twitter.com/Rose3Writes)


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